As a technical writer, one of the best ways to bolster your business, further your personal education, and get yourself visible is to attend a conference.

Attending a conference allows you to broaden your industry knowledge and make some potentially lucrative connections… so what’s stopping you? We’d like to make this decision a little easier for you and share these five conferences that would be great for any technical writer to attend.

Presented by MadCap Software, The MadWorld Communication and Content Strategy Conference is a professional development and learning conference that caters to knowledge base experts, technical writers, documentation managers, content managers, and many other professionals in tech comm fields. With speakers like Jessica Kreger of Tradestation and Robert Hays of eBay, MadWorld is a fantastic opportunity to expand your industry knowledge while connecting with other like-minded technical writers.

While the dates for ConveyUX have already passed for 2016, this is a conference that can definitely go on your “next year” list. Technical writing plays a big part in user experience, and this event in Seattle is all about that good ole UX. This year’s speakers included UX expert Jacob Nielsen and Tom Merritt from the Daily Tech News Show.

This conference focuses on software user assistance, and will provide a huge amount of education toward bettering your written communication with product users. The influencer list is heavy on technical writers, and the featured presenters include Joscelyn Cooper of Airbnb and Peter Lubbers from Google.

Formerly known as “UserConf,” Elevate Summit touts itself as the “Only Conference for Customer Support, Success, and Project Managers.” This support-focused conference provides education and networking for people who work on the web or with apps, and offers speakers like Britnnee Cann of Refinery29 and Kendall Burke from Acuity Scheduling.

Another extension of the WritersUA powerhouse, this conference will focus on tech communication for practitioners and academics in the areas of writing, design, tools, and technology. The conference organizers are currently calling for speakers.

Update – Other recommendations and suggestions for conferences from our readers in the industry
STC – http://summit.stc.org/

LavaCon is one of the best, of not the best for those at the senior or manager level. The education sessions and networking can beat most others. This year there events in Dublin and Las Vegas. http://Www.LavaCon.org

Technical Communication UK (TCUK) is the largest conference on technical communication in the UK. It’s held annually in September or October and covers a range of topics on an annually-changing theme and other topics of more general interest to technical communicators. The conference is organised by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) in the UK.

And other conferences outside the US – of which there are many, include:

MEGAComm – based in Jerusalem, the next one will be held on February 2, 2017, with experts from around the world, this is a solid hi-tech conference that blends techcomm with MARCOM. http://www.megacomm.org.

TC CAMP! This is the only pure unconference for technical communicators where topics are decided by the attendees on the day of the event. On the West Coast on January 20-21 in Santa Clara, CA and on the East Coast in the Fall. The West Coast TC Camp has an API Workshop, for anyone looking to break into that field. TC Camp day is free, the workshop is minimal cost to cover expenses. TC Camp is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational entity.